Monday, December 29, 2014

Diabolical Taste (Kenssie #2) by Ros Jackson

It’s hard for Kenssie to get any respect as the young
thrall to Rakmanon, a demon who feeds on shame, especially since he relies on
the smitten younger demon to be an emergency snack

But when circumstances force Rakmanon to move them to Lincolnshire and a deep
secret from his past returns, Kenssie begins to see different viewpoints – and look
twice at Rakmanon’s grip on her and just how much is she willing to lose and
see destroyed at his say-so.

I have a lot of mixed feelings about this book.
I liked the first book quite a lot because it was quirky, original and
funny. The world setting was weird, the irreverence pretty hilarious and it was
a wonderful, fluffy story of complete and utter weirdness made into a wonderful
madlib of a book. It was fun, it wasn’t deep, it was quirky but I didn’t
envisage it going anywhere. This was part of the reason why I understood it was
so short – because, to quote myself:

So when I received the second book, I worried. And there
were problems as the story of the first book was hastily dragged into something
more substantial. The setting changed abruptly without any real explanation why
(except for plot convenience). Kenssie made some decisions that didn’t seem to
make any sense at all (her rapid friendship of Otis for example and then
deciding to keep it secret from Rakmanon). I think Kenssie herself also was a
little inconsistent – at times a very immature 16 year old (in fact, much
younger) which seemed to be the tone of the first half of the book to emphasise
how naïve and vulnerable she is. But during the book she transforms into a much
more mature, confident character – and there isn’t a natural progression there,
it just seems to happen.

I also think that, at times, the zany weirdness of this
book is just a little forced. It’s a funny book that, at times, feels like it’s
trying really really hard to be funny and the strain shows and is a little
cringeworthy.

Ok, those are the bad points. On the plus side it has
generally succeeded in extracting something more substantial. Kenssie, by the
end of this book, is a much more engaging character. I can see this character
having a storyline worth following, making her own way in the world and becoming
a full person far more so than the Kenssie in the first book. This Kenssie is
much more capable, much more active and much more an agent in her own fate. She
also has a moral streak in the way she feeds which is nice to see as well, both
in her development and the lens it puts over greater demonic society

I also like that this book has addressed one of the
inherent problematic elements of the world – demons use thralls as servants and
emergency food. This book makes it clear exactly what that relationship is – it’s
a form of slavery. It also really underlines exactly how Kenssie is treated and
doesn’t flinch from showing it as deeply wrong even while keeping the light
hearted feel of the book. I think through Rakmanon’s experiences we also see a
lot more of demonic society and just have brutal and predatory it is – even with
all the light and humourous trappings of the world we can see demons constantly
looking for prey includes each other – perhaps especially includes each other given
the nature of thralls.

I also like the little twist in how different demons with
the same food source use different methods to feed – it’s a nice addition.

Inclusionwise no LGBT people, no real developed characters beyond Kenssie
herself – and there are no POC characters. There is one demon who is described
as having “Indian features” but also that their demonic colouring/camouflage/evolution
happens to give her entirely white colouring. This is not good inclusion

So… this book was decent, but not great. But it was
necessary in transforming the stand alone story to something more substantial
for more to be built onto it. It wasn’t done gracefully – but it needed to be
done and we ended somewhere very good for more to be built onto it. A series
has been pulled out of this book and I didn’t think that would be possible